The ‘Mozart of Chennai’ AR Rahman is working on a concert titled ‘RahmanIshq’, a month-long expedition that will kickstart in Kolkata later this year. From there, he’ll head to Visakhapatnam, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in October.

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Indian government honours come in 4 main tiers, the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India), Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

The coveted Bharat Ratna has been won by Tamils in the past, like formet President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the late Tamil film actor MGR, and the late stalwart Carnatic classical singer, M. S. Subbulakshmi.

In 2010, the accolade for Padma Vibhushan went to the amazing Carnatic mridangist, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, a respected performer and teacher, who frequents London on lecturing assignments. Having learnt from gurus like Sri Palghat Mani Iyer, he was a child prodigy, who has accompanied the best, of South Indian musicians and worked alongside his North Indian peers, like Ustad Allah Rakha, the father of the famous Peter Pan of music, Zakir Hussain (and Hussain himself).

Sunday, 24 January 2010

While Tamil music fans might be fast catching on to Omana Penne… (from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa), here’s a little secret about the number. The song was originally slotted to be sung by none other than A R Rahman himself but ultimately,
It was the young and energetic Benny Dayal, who got to croon it. Why’s that, we asked the Oscar winner recently. “I was tired,” he laughs, and adds, “On a serious note, I found my role as a singer in the Manipaaya… number better.”

After he recorded Benny’s version of the song, the composer decided to retain it in the soundtrack. “Benny did a good job on the song,” states Rahman, “So, that’s the version you listen to in the album.”

Saturday, 16 January 2010

Download the unplugged versions of our most beautiful VTV Songs performed at BAFTA, London in the official Album launch function. These are ripped from the youtube videos of the Kalaignar TV program which were later uploaded by arrahmanworld.com.

Some technical details FYI :

` Tracks were ripped in .wav format and edited and exported in 160 kbps.
` The volume level is not boosted to avoid the distortion since these areunplugged versions and also ripped from the recorded videos.
` The mixes are same as of the videos ripped from, but exported in stereo.

Friday, 15 January 2010

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Steady and soothing.....a composition that oozes with spiritualness and introspection. I love how AR juxtaposes the Western rhythms with the Carnatic raagas first by the female voice, and weaving throughout the stylistic Nadaswaram, whose roots are deeply Carnatic, but expressed so universally in this track. Wonderful singing by Benny and the Nadaswaram ending is surely a page from the Rehna Tu continuum outro. Nothing fancy in this composition, but the feeling left behind is extremely elevating and cleansing. Fantastic start. (8/10)

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

Sunday, 3 January 2010

Recently, a song ‘Hosanna’ from Gautham Menon’s Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya was unofficially released on few web portals. Since, there were buzzes that Gautham himself was involved in the act of promoting the songs prior to the official release; he clarified the issue by personally penning letter to all media channels.

Gautham says, “The music of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, which is composed by academy award winner A.R. Rahman has not been released as yet. It should hit the stores and be available to listeners from the 10th of January. However some people with vested interests have somehow got their hands on a rough draft of the earlier version of a song called ‘hosanna’ from the album.”

“The music is copyright protected and we have issued a complaint with the cyber crime cell about this unauthorized transfer and downloading of the song over the net and by email. A software has been installed to track the song over the net before its official release."

"The producers of the film advice caution to all those people engaging in the online transfer of the song. They want to add that it's also unethical to do so and this cannot be considered as just cases of music lovers simply eager to listen to the music and surmounts to piracy. Please stop downloading and transferring the songs of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya.”